News

This is the news coverage and formal press releases from the department. To keep in touch with all our activites, you can subscribe to our monthly news mailing list. Press members seeking background or quotes should contact the OII Press Officer at: press@oii.ox.ac.uk, telephone: +44 (0)1865 287228.

Mark Graham and others discussed whether increased connectivity changes lives and if business people must have smartphones. The panel agreed that connectivity does change lives but was less convinced about smartphones, especially in Africa.

Germany’s former first lady is suing Google after searches for her name reinforced rumours about her private life. Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is interviewed by Zeit online on why the concept of neutral search results is a fiction.

Max Mosley is suing Google in an attempt to get intimate pictures of him, removed from the site. Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, authority on forgetting in a digital age was asked for an expert opinion. Filters can and should be installed he says.

Patterns of activity on Wikipedia can predict the opening box office takings of blockbuster movies a month before they are released, according to Taha Yasseri and his colleagues who built the mathematical model to correlate data

In the aftermath of an abusive tweet aimed at UK Olympic diver, Tom Daley, Newsbeat on BBC Radio 1 took a look at reactions in the UK and other countries to online trolls. Bernie Hogan said the UK is 'incredibly heavy handed'.

"Despite all the buzz currently surrounding 'Big Data', little is in fact known about its potential for advancing social science research. We are therefore very pleased to have secured funding from the Sloan Foundation for a multi-year project (...)"

Commenting on Webinos, an open-source platform which allows digital devices to communicate with each other, Ian Brown points out that many open-source projects don't attract a community. Just because anyone can look doesn't mean they will, he says.

Head of Sustainability and Consumer Futures at Consumer Focus, the statutory Consumer Champion, blogs about digital regulation and introduces a video by Ian Brown highlighting the fast changes in the digital world and the implications for regulators.

New digital dimensions of place profoundly affect the ways that we interact with our urban environments. Dr Mark Graham leads a research project to interrogate these virtual layers of the city, asking what they are, where they are, and why they matter.

Olympic athletes have been interacting with sports fans and the general public via social media and in particular Twitter. But there is divided opinion among athletes and coaches as to the benefits. Mark Graham comments.

OII MSc students Alexander Furnas and Devin Gaffney find that it is virtually impossible that the former governor's recent spike in Twitter followers resulted from normal activity on the social network.

Google's influence over our online lives is waning as more people turn to mobile phones and tablets in place of laptops. Ian Brown is quoted in an in-depth feature on the company and possible threats to its future.

A report on rising numbers of Asian graduates refers to the OII Geographies of the World's knowledge maps and quotes Viktor Mayer-Schönberger saying that the distinct geography of the information age will be about universities and innovation.

The Oxford Internet Surveys are the only studies that come anywhere near OfCom's annual communications report market says John Naughton. Among findings he notes, is a significant rise in smartphone use and in internet access among 65–74 year olds.

Mobile phones are now the most common way for people in China to connect with the Internet. These findings are consistent with the trend noted in other parts of the world says Bill Dutton. "We're moving to what we call next-generation users."

The BBC features an OII map demonstrating continuing Western cultural dominance in an article on the rapid increase in graduates from China and India. Victor Mayer-Schönberger discusses the knowledge imbalance.

An Economist article on tighter web regulation quotes Ian Brown's that the proposals to allow citizens to pursue web users who libel anonymously may mean that sites collect more personal information from their users.

The on-line magazine for corporate communicators reports the research by Mark Graham and Monica Stephens into the origin of Twitter users. Mark's comments on the OII website about the usefulness of Twitter are quoted.

"Welcome to the new-look OII newsletter! We hope you like the change to this new format, which should provide you with even more information about our research, policy and teaching activities; feedback is always very welcome (...)"

The Daily Mail reports details of OII research into the origin of tweets. Mark Graham is extensively quoted on how he and fellow researcher Monica Stephens went about collecting data and mapping the results.